As part of the move to economically unify Europe, the European Union (EU) has created a common European currency called the “euro,” which is represented by the  symbol. From Jan. 1, 1999 until July, 2002, the euro will be used concurrently with the national currencies of each of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) member countries for financial and business transactions. The EMU member countries are Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and Finland. Although the euro will be used for financial and business transactions during the “dual currency period,” euro currency will not actually be introduced into circulation until Jan. 1, 2002. Following the dual currency period, the euro will completely replace the national currencies of the EMU member countries for both circulating currency and transactional currency exchange.
During the dual currency period, individuals, businesses, banks, and other financial institutions in the EMU member countries will be required to operate and report in both the euro, and in their national trading currency. Therefore, these entities will be required to simultaneously deal with two currencies everyday for more than three years. Although dealing with two currencies simultaneously does not sound difficult in and of itself, several aspects of the euro may make handling two currencies in this manner very difficult. In particular, starting Jan. 1, 1999, the euro has fixed conversion rates against all of the national currencies (for instance, 1 euro=6.55957 French Francs (FRF)). These fixed conversion rates have six mandatory significant digits, and are therefore difficult to memorize and perform calculations with. Moreover, the EU has mandated specific currency conversion and rounding rules in an attempt to handle possible inaccuracies during conversion and to prevent fraudulent currency conversion operations. As a result of the conversion rates and the mandatory conversion rules, simultaneous operation with two currencies may be very difficult for all effected individuals and businesses.
To make matters worse, current computer systems are ill-equipped to support the euro and the conversion rates and rules that come along with it. In fact, because the  symbol was designed to specifically identify the euro, computer software upgrades are necessary just so computer systems can display and print the  symbol. Moreover, current computer application software is unable to convert between the euro and other currencies in an easy to use fashion, is unable to allow quick selection of a destination currency, and cannot provide convenient access to conversion results. Furthermore, because the EU did not make any recommendation with regard to the formatting of currency represented in euro, current computer applications are unable to format euro currency values in the format of the national currency.
Therefore, in light of these problems, there is a need for a method and apparatus for easily and quickly converting between the euro and other currencies that follows the EU-defined conversion rules. There is also a need for a method and apparatus for formatting the converted currency into the format of the appropriate national currency. There is an additional need for a method and apparatus for displaying the results of a currency conversion that will allow quick selection of the destination currency and provide convenient access to the conversion results.